Natural Units

The exact numerical value of a dimension-full quantity does not have any intrinsic value
𝑐 = 2.99 × 108 meters/second
= 6.7 × 108 miles/hour
= 7.9 × 1014 cubits/fortnight

Similar for the (reduced) Planck’s constant, ℏ = ℎ/2𝜋

ℏ = 1.05 × 10−34 m2 kg/s
= 3 × 10−37 miles2 lb/hour
= 9 × 10−2 cubits2 grain/fortnight

Picking units appropriately (especially useful in particle physics) we set,

ℏ=𝑐=1
These are called the natural system of units (NU)
In fact, the same thing can be done in thermal and statistical mechanics by setting 𝑘𝐵 = 1
For example, we can, say, use the year as a unit or measure of time and light year as the
unit of distance. Then,
𝑐 = 1 light year/year
In fact, we can say that
𝑐 is in fact a conversion factor relating distances and times
ℏ is a conversion factor relating masses to times and distances
so that ℏ and 𝑐 are rendered effectively dimensionless
So all velocities are measured in units of 𝑐 and action (angular momentum) in units of ℏ

To complete the definition of natural units, we need to pick a third fundamental unit,
which is taken to be Energy
The unit of energy is taken to be the electron-volt (eV), defined as the energy required to
raise the electric potential of an electron or proton by one volt
Essentially, we have made the transition for the 3 base units
𝑀, 𝐿, 𝑇 ∼ kg, m, s → ℏ, 𝑐, eV
In natural units (NU) all quantities have dimensions of some power of energy, since they
are all expressed in terms of ℏ, 𝑐 and energy
In particular mass, length and time can be expressed in the form

𝐸 ℏ𝑐 ℏ
𝑀 = 2, 𝐿= , 𝑇=
𝑐 𝐸 𝐸

So that a quantity with MKS dimensions 𝑀𝑝 𝐿𝑞 𝑇 𝑟 has the NU dimensions 𝐸 𝑝−𝑞−𝑟

since the dimensions of ℏ and 𝑐 are suppressed and their numerical values are one
In nu many different quantities like mass, energy and momentum have the same
dimensions
In converting expressions back to SI units, we restore factors of ℏ and 𝑐 in the relevant
expression by dimensional arguments and use
ℏ = 6.582 × 10−22 MeV s
ℏ𝑐 = 197.3 MeV fermi ≈ 200 MeV fm
For ex. the expression for low energy 𝑒 − 𝛾 → 𝑒 − 𝛾 scattering cross section in NU is:
8𝜋α2
𝜎=
3𝑚𝑒2
To convert back to SI units, insert factors of ℏ𝑎 and 𝑐 𝑏 in the above expression
8𝜋α2 𝑎 𝑏
𝜎= 2 ℏ 𝑐
3𝑚𝑒
Since cross section has dimensions of length squared, comparing dimensions on both sides
we get
2 −1 𝑎 −1 𝑏
𝑀𝐿 𝑇 𝐿 𝑇
𝐿2 =
𝑀2
since the fine structure constant α is dimensionless
This gives 𝑎 = 2 and 𝑏 = −2 . Thus, in SI units,
8𝜋α2 ℏ2
𝜎=
3𝑚𝑒2 𝑐 2
In electrodynamics, there are three main system of units used, where
Coulomb’s law for the potential energy takes the form

1 𝑄1 𝑄2
𝑉= (SI units)
4𝜋𝜖0 𝑟

𝑄1 𝑄2
𝑉= (Gaussian units)
𝑟
1 𝑄1 𝑄2
𝑉= (Heaviside−Lorentz (or “Rationalized” Gaussian units))
4𝜋 𝑟
The unit of charge changes accordingly, with factors of 𝜖0 , 4𝜋 etc. being
absorbed into the definition of the charges between the various system of units
In particle, for electrodynamics we use Heaviside-Lorentz (HL) units (“rationalized”
Gaussian units) where 𝜖0 = 1
1
Since 𝑐 = = 1, in NU this choice also implies that 𝜇0 = 1
𝜖0 𝜇0
So the dimensionless fine structure constant in HL units becomes
2 2
1 𝑒SI 1 𝑒HL
α= =
4𝜋𝜖0 ℏ𝑐 4𝜋 ℏ𝑐
1 2
= 𝑒HL (in natural units)
4𝜋

With this definition of charge there is no factor of 4𝜋 in Maxwell’s eqns

𝛁 ⋅ 𝐄 = 𝜌HL 𝛁 × 𝐁 − 𝜕0 𝐄 = 𝐉HL

This means that the Coulomb potential energy takes the form
1 𝑄1 𝑄2 HL
𝑉 𝑟 =
4𝜋 𝑟
In Heaviside Lorentz units, the energy density of the EM field is
1 2
𝑈HL = 𝐄 + 𝐁2
2
In Gaussian (G) units, the electron charge is defined so that
𝑒G2
α=
ℏ𝑐
𝑒
And hence 𝑒G = HL
4𝜋
The electric and magnetic fields between the Heaviside Lorentz and Gaussian units are
related as
𝐄HL = 4𝜋 𝐄G 𝐁HL = 4𝜋 𝐁G
𝜇 𝜇
i.e., 𝐴HL = 4𝜋𝐴G
The form of the Lorentz force law is therefore unchanged since with these definitions
𝑒G 𝐄G = 𝑒HL 𝐄HL
𝑒G 𝐁G = 𝑒HL 𝐁HL
However a factor of 4𝜋 appears in Maxwell’s eqns. In Gaussian units,

𝛁 ⋅ 𝐄G = 4𝜋 𝜌G 𝛁 × 𝐁G − 𝜕0 𝐄G = 4𝜋 𝐉G
The Coulomb potential becomes
𝑄1 𝑄2 G
𝑉 𝑟 =
𝑟
The EM energy density in Gaussian units becomes
1
𝑈G = 𝐄G2 + 𝐁G2
8𝜋
This “unrationalized” form of the EM energy density is not convenient for quantization
and derivation of Feynman rules in QED, as we will see in the next slides

We will see later that the interaction part of the QED Lagrangian is
ℒint = −𝑖𝑒Ψ ഥ 𝛾 𝜇 Ψ𝐴𝜇
where the product 𝑒𝐴𝜇 enters and 𝛾 𝜇 are the Dirac Gamma matrices
When we study Feynman diagrams, we will see that this interaction term between the
current 𝑒Ψ ഥ 𝛾 𝜇 Ψ (“matter”) and the vector potential 𝐴𝜇 (“Field”) results in a vertex factor
of −𝑖𝑒𝛾 𝜇 between the spin ½ charged particle and the spin-0 photon—and thus the
electric charge (and the system of units used, enters Feynman diagram calculations)
𝜇 𝜇
Since 𝑒G 𝐴G = 𝑒HL 𝐴HL , the interaction vertex in QED is −𝑖𝑒HL 𝛾 𝜇 in HL units and
− 𝑖𝑒G 𝛾 𝜇 in Gaussian units

Recall that Quantum Field Theory is basically the Quantum mechanics of an infinite
system of Simple Harmonic Oscillators (SHO)

A Quantum scalar (𝜙(𝑥)), spinor (𝜓 𝑥 ) or vector (𝐴𝜇 (𝑥)) field etc. is modelled as a
Quantum SHO at each point of space 𝐱 -- or equivalently for each momentum mode 𝐩
(see Peskin and Schroder, M. Schwartz, A. Zee or any book on QFT)
The energy density for a SHO in QM takes the form (after scaling out factors of 𝑚, 𝜔 etc.)
1 2
𝐻SHO = 𝑝 + 𝑥 2
2
with 𝑥 and 𝑝 obeying the canonical commutation relation 𝑥, 𝑝 = 𝑖ℏ = 𝑖 (in NU)
In the three system of units, the energy density of the electromagnetic field takes the form
1 2
𝑈HL = 𝐄 + 𝐁2
2
1
𝑈G = 𝐄G2 + 𝐁G2
8𝜋
𝜖0 2 1 2
𝑈SI = 𝐄 + 𝐁
2 2𝜇0
In Gaussian units, the gauge field (the electric and magnetic fields) are not canonically
normalized as can be seen by comparing the form of the EM energy density with that of
the SHO
And the SI system is even more ugly, spoiling the symmetry between 𝐄 and 𝐁
As a result, factors of 4𝜋 appear in the Feynman rules for QED in Gaussian units:
The factor associated with an incoming photon is 4𝜋 𝜖 𝜇 rather than just 𝜖 𝜇 and the
factor for an outgoing photon is 4𝜋 𝜖 ∗ 𝜇 rather than just 𝜖 ∗ 𝜇 , where 𝜖 𝜇 is the polarization
4-vector of the spin-1 photon (or the gluon or 𝑊 ± , 𝑍 0 )

4𝜋
The photon propagator in Gaussian units is −𝑖𝑔𝜇𝜈 and in Heaviside-Lorentz units it
𝑘2
𝑖𝑔𝜇𝜈
becomes − , where 𝑘 is the 4-momentum of the photon
𝑘2

In quantum field theory it is obviously much more convenient to have a canonically

normalized gauge field, with the energy density having the same form as the SHO

Thus one uses HL units, avoiding cumbersome factors of 4𝜋 etc. in the Feynman rules of
QED (interaction vertices, propagators etc.) and other gauge theories